Red Kite: Scholarship Search Goes Digital Inside GATE College System Platform for High School Students Concerned About Affording College

Greetings, and welcome to the Financial Aid Goes Digital Blog. Did you know that the needs of America's 15.8 million high school students are being supported in a game-changing way thanks to digital technology? With US student debt topping $1.5 trillion, ensuring students and their parents can easily understand and access scholarships to help pay for college is critical now more than ever. By leveraging such resources, leveling the playing field even for socioeconomically disadvantaged students comes within reach.

Red Kite, as integrated in the GATE College System platform, is the new technology leading the way. [Positionality acknowledgement: I am CEO of GATE, which is presently in active strategic partnership with this company.] The opportunities opened by this technology revolutionizes the way students with diverse interests and backgrounds access money for college in the following impactful ways:
  • Offers college financial planning service
  • Connects to over $20 Billion in financial aid (including scholarships, grants and fellowships as well as loans) 
  • Build a customized plan based on student's individual college preferences, backgrounds and interests
  • Provides financial aid matching and cost of attendance planning
  • Showcases scholarships, grants, fellowships, federal and state aid, education loans
  • Manages all of a student's financial aid in one place and track progress towards college cost of attendance
  • Gives information about the different types of financial aid and the cost associated with each type
  • Encourages students to secure the right money in the right orde
  • Personalizes financial aid planning
  • Leverages a matching engine in its technology
  • Shows how to use cost of attendance planning
  • Uses integrated text (SMS) messaging
  • Makes customized To-Do lists
  • Reminds students of deadlines via SMS, calendar adds and email
A key factor to note is that both Red Kite and GATE are entirely free of recommended purchases or ads. Both companies are committed to no data-mining, and no exploitation of students.

I look forward to sharing more about this life-changing tool in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned.

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